Marriage presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities for couples
Married Couples enjoy the many benefits of married life together, but they also face the daily challenges of communicating effectively and resolving the issues involved with running a household, parenting children and managing finances.
The PREPARE/ENRICH couple assessment integrates the multiple versions of the previous inventories into one dynamic system automatically tailored to assess the relevant stage and structure of a couple’s relationship. Unlike previous assessment tools that assess overall couple functioning across a predefined inventory or set of scales, the PREPARE/ENRICH couple assessment is dynamically generated based on the individual characteristics of each couple.
Relationship Stage:
Relationship Stage is assessed by asking couples to identify if they are dating, engaged, or married. Each of these relationship stages presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities for couples.
Married Couples:
Along with the core scales, the PREPARE/ENRICH couple assessment includes scales on Forgiveness, Personal Stress, and Personality for married couples.
The standard Children and Parenting scale is interchanged with scales for Parenting Expectations, Becoming Parents, Intergenerational Issues, or Step Parenting when relevant.
Health Issues, Role Transitions, Interfaith/Interchurch, and Cultural/Ethnic Issues are brought in when relevant for the couple.
The Spiritual Beliefs scale is customised for Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish groups when indicated by the facilitator.
Whereas the focus of the couple assessment with premarital couples tends to be preventive and educational in nature, evaluation with married couples is more varied. Some couples interested in enriching their relationships may wish to use assessment tools as a means of learning more about their marriage. More often, evaluative instruments are used by Relationship Educators and Counsellors as a vital aid in relationship education and marital therapy.
Read on for various resources to assist you at this time. Finally, please let us know how you are going in these challenging times.
Marriage and Relationship Education is a learning opportunity, much like you would do in any other important life event. Check out the video for couples on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xyuUl-JnIhM.
Tune in next week for more discussion about relationships and mental health.
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Written by Shane Smith